The present disclosure relates to a grill for cooking human food employing a lower cooking platen and a movable upper cooking platen having a counterbalance assembly to enhance control of the upper and lower cooking surfaces.
The food service industry uses numerous cooking appliances in the preparation of various food items. Particularly, commercial eateries use a two-sided cooking appliance such as a sandwich grill, also referred to as a press grill or contact toaster to prepare panini's, sandwiches, hamburger patties, and other food items. This type of cooking appliance cooks food items from two sides to reduce overall cooking times.
Generally, a sandwich grill includes a rectangular housing with a stationary lower cooking platen and a pivoting upper cooking platen, which are both operatively connected to a power source for heating the platens to a predetermined temperature. The upper cooking platen is pivotally attached about a single axis to the housing for movement between a raised position with the upper cooking platen being inclined upwardly from the lower cooking platen, and a cooking position with the upper cooking platen overlying the lower cooking platen. Typically, in the cooking position the upper cooking platen and the lower cooking platen are separated by a gap for receiving food items. In some sandwich grills, the gap can be manually adjusted or selected to different sizes to accommodate food items of different thicknesses.
However, conventional sandwich grills suffer from various deficiencies which detract from their overall utility. For example, conventional sandwich grills often make contact with food items unevenly, thereby, causing problems such as uneven cooking, over cooking or burning of portions of the food items, and undercooking of portions of food items. Since the upper platen's connection to the housing pivots about a single axis, the upper platen is only parallel with the lower platen at one angular position. Therefore, if the food item is a greater or lesser thickness than the gap, the upper platen contacts the food item at a non-parallel angle relative to the lower platen, which results in uneven cooking. Moreover, the non-parallel contact places undesirable stresses on the components of the sandwich grill, which increase wear and failure of the sandwich grill.
In addition, conventional sandwich grills have no control over the forces applied to the food items. Typically, in the cooking position the upper platen rests on the food items by virtue of gravity. Therefore, compressive forces on the food item are determined by the weight of the upper platen, which can smash, squash, or otherwise damage smaller or softer food items.
An example of a pivoting two platen cooking grill with counterbalance is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,257,126. That patent discloses a handle that is connected to a pair of pivot arms 397 and 397a having cam surfaces with corresponding cam followers 389 and 390 that are connected to a counterbalance to move the upper platen to different positions relative to the lower platen. That patent also discloses a pair of catch rods 403 having feet 407 that engage the upper surface of the casing for the upper platen to resist the rear edge of the upper platen cooking surface from pivoting to extend behind the rear of the casing for the lower platen. This restriction on location keeps grease and juice on the cooking surface of the upper platen from dripping on the counter or support surface to the rear of the lower casing.
The repetitive opening and shutting of the upper platen relative to the lower platen for such a food grill produces wear and tear on the cam surfaces, which in turn can cause the upper platen to not make contact with the lower platen over time. Additionally, wear between the support pins and the cams can cause tilting of the upper platen from side to side.
In the design of U.S. Pat. No. 6,257,126 the handle rods 408 are connected to the upper platen casing by pivot mounts attached to the casing. The pivot mounts have a pin that extends through a bore in each handle rod 408. Such mounting is not conducive to leveling the upper platen cooking surface to be parallel to the lower platen surface, and can lead to tilting of the upper platen surface, and uneven application of that surface to food items.
Thus, there is a need for a two platen food grill that evenly cooks food items regardless of variations in thickness, that provides improved control over the position of the upper platen and dripping of grease therefrom, and improved control of the force applied to food items, and further that operates to reduce wear and tear on parts that can cause unevenness of position of the upper platen.
Corresponding reference numerals indicate corresponding parts throughout the several figures of the drawings.